Chris knows there's something out there better for her. She's young, cute, downtrodden (in her opinion) and orphaned; How can she not be destined for greatness?
When the chance to prove her worth comes along, she can hardly turn it down... Just a pity the only person she gets for company is a mysterious obnoxious masked fellow who just can't seem to leave her alone.
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User's Comments:

It's a tricky situation, to be sure. I feel like Christine here is shouldering more of the blame than the original girl from the fairy tale - the girl had ended up trapped in the "spin-gold-for-me-or-die" through other people's machinations, and Rumplestiltskin's offer was basically her only way to survive. Circumstances pushed her to accept the deal in a state of duress; she didn't have any choice in my opinion, if she wanted to live.

In this adaption of sorts, Chris was the one who wanted to be special and continued keeping up the charade even when it clearly had become risky for her. She landed herself in that position in the cell, originally. But all the same, good ol' Rumpy was there to take advantage of her sitatuation, her character flaws, engineering this entire thing to lead to this very moment... I feel like he's more actively malicious than the original Rumplestiltskin, who just made a deal and was then betrayed. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's some explanation for this that turns it all on its head.

Anyways, I'm REALLY curious as to how this is going to end. Mostly, I want to know just how the Rumplestiltskin in the past relates to this imposter :) And also crossing my fingers for Chris to get a happy ending - she's a flawed character, but I support her all the same.

@DeathDragon:
Yeah, ita. I honestly don't have much sympathy for Christine at this point. She chose to do this. She could have lied and said that the gold was a one time thing and she couldn't do it anymore. Instead she kept at it. She kind of comes off completely selfish and dumb. I am still engaged with this story regardless of how I feel about her. What happened to her brother? Is he really dead? Who is rumple and what happened to th other guy?

@Lollylolly:
I'm with you.
I mean, to start off she had a decent enough life on the farm. Not exciting, but she had food, a roof over her head, clothes, the chance to have a life period. And then she basically repays her brother, who more or less gave up ever having a life outside the farm to ensure she could have one, by being lazy and whiny(I don't think we ever saw her do work, she just complained all the time and was a butt to him) before just ditching him and the farm to run to the city because she thought she was to good for it(at least, that was the attitude impression I got 'I'm to good for this place, I deserve better').

Plus, she didn't even think her plan through at all. She wanted to go show her magic to the prince/king and, then what? She literally didn't know and states as much. And tells the king up front during their conversation that she didn't want to be on the farm(hence his confusion when she tells him later she wants to go back, as far as he knew, she hated the place and didn't care)
And hell, she could have just right up said that the first straw into gold was a fluke or that she didn't have the skill/energy/magic to do it again. Anything. But she didn't, she kept it up and kept agreeing to let 'Rumple' help her, why? She had nothing to lose(save for going back to the farm which wasn't good enough for her) because he never gave her a 'do it or die' ultimatum like in the original tale. She could have sucked up her pride, told Rumple to piss off and done nothing. I mean hell, I think he even said so himself, that she didn't have to keep this up.

We have no idea what happened in the time between that incident and now, like we skipped over 7 years.

The only one I feel sorry for is the kid, gonna get dragged into his mother's problems that started before he was born.

Yep
@IcyPheonix:
Everything you said. I just don't find Chris very believable. She doesn't really behave like a kid who was forced to grow up quickly to help with the family farm. She behaves like a spoiled little brat. I'm not sure what the writer's plan is. I guess we will see!

My theory that I'm sure everyone has already thought of...
I remember waaay back in chapter one, just a clip of Rumple taking her away into the forest. Then it was never brought up again. If you look back, it looked like Chris was asleep in his arms (perhaps put to sleep with a spell?). So she wouldn't have remembered any of it.
Thinking maybe, this guy killed Rumple, took his mask, and brought Chris back home safely, then continued to watch her from afar as she grew up, planning how he's going to get a child from her later.

@HVoice: I have a feeling that the Rumple from her childhood is different from this guy, too. The original Rumple was good-natured and genuinely cared about Chris; he wouldn't play her like that. Their personalities and motives are/were completely different. Sad to think that something bad happened to the original one, if it's true!

@HVoice: I thought I read somewhere that "a fair's mask is like his face"... Maybe something happens sometimes to a fair's body that alters his face/personality so that sometimes the only way to recognize him is by his mask?

@MilkyTea: Except he didn't? He flat out calls her an idiot for using his gift to try to double down on her pathetic excuse of a plan and not even being honest about it.
She could have done better just by saying "I had a Fair help me, and I'm not even really sure why". That ALONE would have made her interesting enough to keep around, at least for a little while.
She could also have indeed just left and tried to make something with her newfound companion's help, somehow.
But, no, she pretended she was something she wasn't, was given more than one chance to escape it (and the king KNEW that she was lying about something), and just kept throwing herself in deeper.

Well, to be fare. After the first time he helped her, she could have bribed the guard to set her free instead of taking her to the king(and maybe take some gold for herself and live it up in the kingdom) Even Kaleb at one point offered to take her home. She had many chances to go home, so she kind of backed herself into corner there.